Narottam Mishra moves court against EC ban

Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra, who was disqualified by the Election Commission of India (EC) for three years from contesting polls for allegedly filing wrong accounts of election expenditure in 2008 assembly elections, on Tuesday filed a petition at the Gwalior bench of the state high court for a stay on the EC order.

Mishra said the petition was filed by his lawyer MPS Raghuvanshi as there was “no proof he had paid money for the news”.

Mishra , who is also parliamentary affairs and public relations minister, alleged EC’s order was “anomalous and based on imagination and possibilities”. Raghuvanshi told HT that he filed over 2,500-page petition to seek a stay.

“We have made a plea to the court that EC order is not based on any proof that Mishra gave money for the news. So we are urging the court that until the investigation into the matter is not completed, the court should stay the order”, he said.

The EC order, disqualifying Mishra on charges of incorrect expenditure, came on Saturday.

It stated that Mishra “was complicit in the publication of the impugned paid news as news items and has derived benefit from and taken advantage of the same, without reporting or acknowledging it, and thereby attempting to bypass the rigours of the law”.

The Maharashtra State Human Right Commission (MSHRC) and Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW) have taken cognizance of 38-yearold Manjula Shetye’s custodial death after HT’s report of the brutal manner in which she was treated inside the Byculla woman’s prison by six officials.

The complainant and the main witness in the case alleged in her statement that after assaulting Shetye brutally, the jail officials had even inserted a lathi (stick) inside her private parts.

MSHRC has demanded a detailed report on the incident within two weeks. Speaking exclusively with HT, Justice SR Bannurmath, chairperson of MSHRC said, “We have got special right and can take action against any custodial death that